Labels

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Teaser: Cressida’s Circle by Mikala Ash @ash_mikala @RABTBookTours @changelingpress




Steampunk Adventure Romance

Date Published: September 11, 2026



In a world overthrown by witchcraft, a giant love has been lost. Can Cressida be saved?

 

Mourning the loss of her husband, Cressida Troy is on her way to Earth. Her mission; to meet the Queen of England and cement relations between the Lunarians and humans to present a united front in the approaching war with the Martians. For Cressida, the mission has a much deeper and personal meaning. Being human, as well as the Lunarian Empress, Cressida is plagued by doubt and guilt and seeks redemption for what is seen by many as the betrayal of her species. Matters are complicated when she is kidnapped by the pernicious witch, Lady Neva, who is hell-bent on revenge against Queen Victoria. Armed with unlimited magical power, Lady Neva is planning to usurp the crown and rule both Earth and space.

Meanwhile Jacob McLeary, Cressida’s former fiancé, is under the watchful and lascivious eye of Lavinia Branscombe, a Lunarian agent. Knowledge of the dark secret at the heart of the Lunarian society fuels Jacob’s loathing of the aliens, but with so much at stake, can love overcome the barrier of hate? Will Cressida find redemption?



EXCERPT

 

Like a child’s toy, the cradle of humanity filled the bridge windows with brilliant colour: blue, green, and brown, flecked with white, a gemstone set against the black velvet of space. If only people could know how insignificant this world was in the scheme of things, floating silently in the incomprehensible emptiness.

Pointless philosophising distracted me for only a moment. My heart trembled with anticipation. I was nearly home.

The Lunarian crew, in their natural form, goblin like, winged with leathery skin and large bright eyes, ignored my presence, as they should. Though they were experienced, with hundreds of trips behind them, piloting a spacecraft was not something to be taken lightly, especially with me on board creating the expectation that everything should be executed perfectly.

I would have put them at ease, but that would have been churlish of me, I realised. They wanted to impress me, and lowering expectations would have been like a slap in the face, a sign of patronising condescension on my part. Not an endearing action no matter how well intended.

I turned my thoughts back to the sparkling globe before us, and the people who awaited me. I’d read how the ancients believed that the souls of the dead fled their bodies and ascended to the moon, a way station before reincarnation, or their ultimate disposition in paradise or the underworld. Little did they contemplate that souls from that grey desert of a world would descend upon the Earth and conquer it.

I had to be careful how I approached not just the Queen, and her parliament, but most importantly the bureaucracy which ruled from the shadows and exerted more power than she could ever hope to wield. I hoped they understood we humans were a conquered species. Of course, behind the mask of cheerful bonhomie and expressions of respect as they delivered begrudging cooperation, there would be fear and hatred. From that febrile soup simple misunderstandings could bubble up and poison the nascent relationship.

The politicians had wanted a state visit to impress everyone with the importance of our relationship, and to thank me for using our power to save them from their European enemies. Though our reasons differed, I agreed with Her Majesty that ostentatious displays of pomp and ceremony were unnecessary. She wanted to maintain her image of the Warrior Queen and didn’t want to share the adoration of the crowds as the saviour of the Empire. She feared the loss of face if I was seen as an equal.

I wanted none of that either, feeling as disloyal as I did for my part in what was fundamentally the takeover of her empire. I requested a low-key, quiet visit. A gentle introduction back into human society. One in which I would not feel such a fraud. With Her Majesty’s relieved endorsement, my desire had carried the day.

The other vexed issue was the taking of her son the Prince of Wales by Lady Neva. I had to placate and convince her that we were doing everything we could to return him to her. Though she detested the Prince -- after all he had been intimately involved in several assassination attempts, and she had come so close to strangling him with her own hands -- he was her son.

Randolf, my bodyguard and general factotum on this mission, floated at my side. “My lady,” he said softly into my ear. “Amanda has prepared a meal.”

“Thank you, Randolf.” I had skipped breakfast, and as always, my body servant had correctly anticipated my needs. I was indeed feeling hungry.

Randolf was a handsome, powerfully built, athletic man. His bright azure eyes reminded me so much of Jacob’s. My body stirred, my nipples hardened, and my quim throbbed. He and his female counterpart, the stunningly beautiful Amanda, had pleasured me delightfully and often since we had left the moon, and I had gratefully surrendered myself to them. That train of thought pushed the need for food aside. I wanted to be pleasured again.

I took Randolf’s proffered hand, and we glided to the access chute that led “down” to the passenger quarters. His body heat pulsed through his tunic and through my gown to warm my flesh. He wore no pants, and his stiff cock swayed enticingly as he propelled himself before me. Amanda was awaiting us, naked and undeniably aroused, the nipples of her ample breasts pink and erect. I gave her an encouraging smile to confirm my thoughts were of a similar nature.

Being firm, she countermanded my desire with the advice that I needed sustenance. She offered a full English breakfast: steaming scrambled eggs, kippers, ham, bacon, and sausages, kidneys, mushrooms, and fried tomatoes. A feast for a multitude. With a petulant pout, I took a dainty bite of each and finished with a cup of tea and a slice of toast. I’d maintained a salacious gaze which lingered on her almond-shaped eyes and gave rise to a pink flush to her cheeks. When I’d finished, I gracefully dabbed my mouth with a napkin and took Randolf’s cock in hand.

“Keep the food warm, and join us,” I told Amanda. “I may eat some more later. My current appetite, though, is for the diverting pleasures of unbridled fornication.”

Making love when one has no weight, once the initial challenges are overcome, is a sublime enterprise, more like an ethereal ballet of the most intimate kind. Holding your partner in a close embrace, limbs entwined, his cock held snugly by one’s tight sheath, so that you become as one, spinning, rotating, pirouetting like a ballerina celebrating a mind-shattering climax.

 

About the Author

Aussie Mikala Ash used to be a mild-mannered training & development consultant by day, and a wild sci-fi and paranormal adventure writer by night. Now she is a brazen full-time writer and nature photographer who is concentrating on having among other things, “… bags, and bags of fun!” Mikala can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.


Author on Twitter


Publisher on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @changelingpress




RABT Book Tours & PR

Book Blitz + #Giveaway: Last Night by Kim Deiste @XpressoTours

Last Night
Kim Deister
Publication date: September 7th 2026
Genres: Adult, Psychological Thriller

What do you do when you keep losing time?

Terrifying visions torment Starra. Lost moments of time and flashes of images too horrific to accept fill her with icy fear so complete she can’t escape it. With too many unanswered questions, she needs answers. Now. It’s her only hope if she wants to save what’s left of her shattered mind and soul.

Unlike Starra, Mina cares nothing for her soul. Damned long ago, she’s too scarred for redemption. There are people meant to enjoy lives of love and family and friends. Mina isn’t one of these people. Her life is in the shadows, unafraid of the dark… until she realizes that something lurks in those shadows, something that wants to tear her apart.

One never knows what the darkness hides…

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

Night fell quickly, swallowing the last light of day in the blink of an eye as the sky darkened from a surreal deep purple into a vast expanse of ebony. Not a single star pricked through the inky darkness. Even the moon shied away from shining too brightly through the clouds that faded into the night sky.

They call it the city that never sleeps for a reason. It was never truly dark in New York City, a million neon lights shining through even the blackest of nights.

But not tonight. Tonight the darkness engulfed everything it touched, dimming even the brightest of the neon, absorbing it into itself.

It was the kind of thick, cloying darkness that made people fear every shadow that moved as they hurried along the evening streets. It seemed alive, almost sentient, as it slipped around corners, like it was a predator chasing its prey, swallowing everything in its path into an endless void. People scurried along the sidewalks with their hearts racing, eyes furtively darting into the dark places. As the shadows shifted ominously, they quickened their paces until they were safely behind locked doors with the lights on and the curtains pulled tightly across the windows. They were right to hide, right to be afraid of whatever lurked on the other side of the too-thin glass. Dangerous things hid in the shadows of the night.

I knew that, probably more than anyone. The night scared the hell out of me. But it wasn’t the monsters that hid in the shadows that frightened me. They paled in comparison to the beast I feared lurked within me, the beast that came out at night. I lived in fear that I was the monster that hid in the shadows.

Yet even as much as the night terrified me, I welcomed it. The darkness wrapped me in its arms. The shadows that danced on the walls didn’t scare me; they kept me company when I felt alone. The noises that made others slam their windows shut and throw the locks home sounded like music to me, distracting me from the thoughts that ran through my head all day long, tormenting me. The night energized me, made me feel strong and powerful when most of the time I felt anything but.

Author Bio:

My name is Kim and my last name, Deister, is pronounced “Die-ster.” I always tell my husband I should have kept my married name, Ingram. So much easier to to pronounce!

I am a writer thoroughly in love with words. Reading them, writing them… I love that words can take you outside of your world and let the unimaginable become imaginable. I love them so much that I decided I needed to create some worlds and stories of my own!

Besides being a writer, I am an Army veteran (and Army wife) and a mom to four sons. I grew up in northern New York in a tiny college town called Potsdam. Over the years, our Army life has taken us all over the place and I have been lucky enough to work and live in some pretty amazing places. Right now we live in Hawaii on the island of O’ahu, minutes from the North Shore.

Website / Facebook / Goodreads


GIVEAWAY!

Last Night Blitz


Cover Reveal: Blood in the Azure by S.M. Gray @XpressoTours

Blood in the Azure
S.M. Gray
Publication date: March 1st 2027
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Keep the crown. It had been Len’s only goal for six years, before which it had been to take the damn thing. As Serica’s first ruling queen in centuries, she’s managed to stay on her throne through force of will and a growing trail of blood. For a time, her crown felt safe. Then Bardan Alimen, her lifelong betrothed, called to fulfill their marriage. With no coin to buy her freedom and an enemy force too strong to attack, Len feels her crown slipping from her grasp.

Then, an idea: she can escape wedding one king by marrying another.

Kaseus Collabel is a man so reviled his name is a curse. As king of hedonistic Hotesa, their marriage should be unthinkable. Their gods? Vicious enemies. Cultures? Incompatible. Their peoples? Hateful. The idea would have repulsed her had it not been for a consuming whisper of something more—and the wealth he can use to free her.

Handsome and effortlessly charismatic, Kaseus and his kingdom are everything Len needed and nothing she’s allowed to have. As Len is thrust to the center of an international scandal and her own people begin to turn on her, she will have to decide between her heart and her crown before she loses both.

Website


Author Bio:

S.M. Gray is a small-town Canadian author. By day she works as a psychotherapist, and she moonlights as a voracious key-clacker in her free hour before bed. She holds master’s degrees in Sociology and Psychology which inform her writing. Gray lives in small-town New Brunswick with her husband, two young children, and sugar-sweet cat.

Website / Instagram / Goodreads



Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: Crimes and Crevices of the Heart by Beth Ford @BethFordAuthor @GoddessFish



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Beth Ford will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Blurb: 

Cassie Woods yearns to be a real journalist. But in 1880s New York City, her only assignments are women's interest stories. Until, that is, a cookbook author she's meant to interview goes missing and Cassie finds herself in the midst of a police investigation involving one of the city's major crime families. Surly but handsome Detective O'Neill threatens repercussions to her career if she continues to interfere. Will Cassie get in over her head or will she save the day and solve the mystery?

This collection contains seven connected stories, each centered on an exciting new case for Cassie to solve while navigating the highs and lows of her relationship with Detective O'Neill.

 

Purchase CRIMES AND CREVICES OF THE HEART on Amazon

 

Read an Expert


“A lady reporter?” the policeman at the front desk asked her. “Are you serious?”

“Quite serious, I assure you.” She pointed at the card he held in his hand.

“Anyone could have these printed.”

“Are you going to let me talk to the detective who’s investigating her case or not?”

The man scowled, making his bushy blond eyebrows meet in the middle. Without a word, he walked through a door and out of sight. He returned a few minutes later followed by a fortyish man with strong cheekbones and striking green eyes. The first policeman returned to his duties at the front desk while his handsome superior continued into the lobby. Cassie turned her most charming smile on him.

“Are you the detective?”

“I can’t have reporters interfering in my case.” He spoke in a rough Irish brogue.

Her face fell. Clearly this man was not one to be charmed. “I’m merely asking for information.”

“What does the News Desk want with this story anyway? And why send you?”

“I’m the women’s editor—”

“Women are reading missing persons cases now, are they?”

“I’m simply trying to ascertain where the investigation currently stands. Mr. Walker’s lawyer—”

“What lawyer has he got?”

“Mr. Greene—”

The detective harrumphed. “No good swindler, that one.”

“I’m sure such a description applies to many lawyers you encounter, Mr.…”

The man glared at her. “O’Neill.”

Interview with Beth Ford

Author of CRIMES AND CREVICES OF THE HEART 


Could you tell us about any research trips you took for this story? Which places did you visit, and what made them essential to your writing?

I didn’t take a trip specifically for this book, but while writing the final story in the collection, I was in New York City anyway. I visited the Tenement Museum and bought a book on the history of Five Points at the gift shop. The final story has a lot of action in Five Points, so both the visit and the book were essential to understanding the layout and feel of that neighborhood at the time.

What's the strangest thing you've ever had to research online for your book?

Well, this morning I googled “Do oxen have ankles” for a story because I couldn’t for the life of me remember the word “fetlock” so that felt pretty random. I’ve researched the gamut of topics for my work. I researched the spiritualist movement for a book. When writing my medieval time travel books, I had to research a lot of things such as what medieval people ate, what wine was like, what they wore, what saddles were like, and how they told time, among other things.

What research (history, mythology, science) goes into your world-building?

Given the genre that I write in, history is a big part of world-building. I generally read books or articles on the time period and the specific place I want to set the story. I may research historical individuals, but my main characters are typically fictional even though they may be inspired in part by real people. However, real people do occasionally pop up as minor characters in my stories.

Have any of the people you've known, past or present, left a lasting impression on your writing journey? If so, we'd love to hear about a memorable experience that stands out to you.

There have been so many—teachers, friends, fellow writers, editors. I can’t pick just one! While writing is often a solo endeavor, you really can’t make it without the support of others.

Do you write in the same genre all the time?

Not exactly. I write straight historical fiction as well as time travel romance. But I capture both genres under the tagline “fiction that transports you in time.” In all my books, history plays an important role.

If so, have you ever consider writing in another one?

The first book I ever wrote (which was never published) was contemporary literary fiction. While I won’t say I’d never write in that genre again, I do feel like I hit my niche when I started working in historical fiction.

Which character, supernatural or human, do you enjoy writing the most and why?

Writing the character of Ebenezer Scrooge for my Christmas Carol sequel, After the Spirits Come was delightful. I’ve always thought A Christmas Carol is the perfect story. I’ve read the book many times, watched movie versions, and I go to see the play at my local theater every year. To be even a small part of that Dickensian world was a huge honor.


About the Author:



Beth Ford writes historical and time travel stories that transport you in time. She is the author of the novels In the Times of Spirits, Love Between Times, Love Across Time, and After the Spirits Come: A Continuation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. She also writes the Cassie Woods, Reporter historical mystery romance novella series. Her work has also appeared in a variety of literary journals. She lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Connect with Beth Ford

Website ~ X ~ BlueSky


Giveaway:



$10 Amazon/BN GC





Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.